A series of circumstances (Trovato 1998: 555) encouraged groups from Liguria and southern Piedmont to immigrate to Sicily between the end of the 11th and 13th century. In Nicosia (EN), the pre-existing population abandoned the upper part of the city, the district of S. Maria which was preferred by the newcomers, and settled in the lower part, around the church of S. Nicolò. From the analysis of a corpus of twentieth-century literary texts representative of the varieties spoken in the two districts, it can be concluded that two phonological rules applied systematically in the S. Maria variety: /au/ > [ou] in unstressed syllable; /je/ > [ie] and /wo/ > [uo] in prepausal position. The same rules apply also in the texts belonging to the S. Nicolò variety, but in a non-systematic/approximate way (without the contextual constraints). It is therefore possible to hypothesize that the two phonological rules were characteristic of the language of the motherland and that the authors from the district of S. Nicolò attempted to imitate the variety of S. Maria, which was perceived as more prestigious and authentic. For both phenomena, variation occurs not so much through the presence/absence of characteristics, but rather through their simplification/generalization, resulting from the transfer of elements from one code to another. Rules, in fact, apply optionally or with fewer constraints, or new rules are generated in order to connect new and unrelated expressions to some general patterns. A similar process underlies the diverse realizations of the verbal idiom avé da „to have to”, presumably transferred to Nicosia from Gagliano and Enna: the idiom appears to have been repeatedly reanalysed both phonologically and morphosyntactically.
Una serie di circostanze (Trovato 1998: 555) ha incoraggiato gruppi della Liguria e del Piemonte meridionale a immigrare in Sicilia tra la fine dell'XI e il XIII secolo. A Nicosia (EN) la popolazione preesistente abbandonò la parte alta della città, il quartiere di S. Maria preferito dai nuovi venuti, e si stabilì nella parte bassa, intorno alla chiesa di S. Nicolò. Dall'analisi di un corpus di testi letterari novecenteschi rappresentativi delle varietà parlate nelle due contrade, si può concludere che due regole fonologiche si applicavano sistematicamente nella varietà di S. Maria: / au /> [ou] in sillaba atona; / je /> [ie] e / wo /> [uo] in posizione prepausale. Le stesse regole valgono anche per i testi appartenenti alla varietà di S. Nicolò, ma in modo non sistematico / approssimativo (senza vincoli contestuali). È quindi possibile ipotizzare che le due regole fonologiche fossero caratteristiche della lingua della madrepatria e che gli autori della contrada di S. Nicolò cercassero di imitare la varietà di S. Maria, percepita come più prestigiosa e autentica. Per entrambi i fenomeni la variazione si realizza non tanto attraverso la presenza / assenza di caratteristiche, quanto piuttosto attraverso una semplificazione o generalizzazione, conseguente al trasferimento di elementi da un codice all'altro. Le regole, infatti, si applicano (nei testi della varietà di S. Nicolò) opzionalmente o con meno vincoli, oppure vengono generate nuove regole per connettere espressioni nuove ad alcuni pattern generali. Un processo simile è alla base delle diverse realizzazioni della poliremativa avé da ‘dovere’, presumibilmente basato su un modello di Gagliano ed Enna: la polirematica sembra essere stata ripetutamente rianalizzata, sia fonologicamente che morfosintatticamente.
Phonological and morphosyntactic microvariation in the Gallo-Italic diasystem of Nicosia. Evidence from literary sources.
Salvatore MENZA
Primo
2019-01-01
Abstract
A series of circumstances (Trovato 1998: 555) encouraged groups from Liguria and southern Piedmont to immigrate to Sicily between the end of the 11th and 13th century. In Nicosia (EN), the pre-existing population abandoned the upper part of the city, the district of S. Maria which was preferred by the newcomers, and settled in the lower part, around the church of S. Nicolò. From the analysis of a corpus of twentieth-century literary texts representative of the varieties spoken in the two districts, it can be concluded that two phonological rules applied systematically in the S. Maria variety: /au/ > [ou] in unstressed syllable; /je/ > [ie] and /wo/ > [uo] in prepausal position. The same rules apply also in the texts belonging to the S. Nicolò variety, but in a non-systematic/approximate way (without the contextual constraints). It is therefore possible to hypothesize that the two phonological rules were characteristic of the language of the motherland and that the authors from the district of S. Nicolò attempted to imitate the variety of S. Maria, which was perceived as more prestigious and authentic. For both phenomena, variation occurs not so much through the presence/absence of characteristics, but rather through their simplification/generalization, resulting from the transfer of elements from one code to another. Rules, in fact, apply optionally or with fewer constraints, or new rules are generated in order to connect new and unrelated expressions to some general patterns. A similar process underlies the diverse realizations of the verbal idiom avé da „to have to”, presumably transferred to Nicosia from Gagliano and Enna: the idiom appears to have been repeatedly reanalysed both phonologically and morphosyntactically.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
